1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information input system for inputting information to a computer or like device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has become possible to carry computers around with the advent of smaller and lighter laptop PCs and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Further, wearable computers designed to be worn on human bodies like accessories are being developed, and we are exposed to live while wearing computers in the near future. When such a time comes, input interfaces for the wearable computers become necessary.
In order to execute an application enabling the input of hand-written memos and diary on the wearable computer, there is a demand for the realization of a system enabling the input of arbitrary contents such as pictures and hand-written characters in addition to characters. An air pen system, a system for inputting characters hand-written in the air and other systems have been studied as systems enabling the input of such arbitrary contents.
The air pen system is such that a user wearing a head mount display (HMD) and holding a pen device moves the pen device in the air to draw a virtual hand-written memo at that place.
Further, the system for inputting the characters hand-written in the air is such that, when a user wearing a mountable video camera and a HMD moves his fingertip in the air to draw an arbitrary character, a trace of the fingertip is detected and displayed on the HMD. The user writes one character by moving his fingertip in the air and inputs information on the character or the like by placing his hand outside an image frame upon completely writing the character.
However, since the above pen device utilizes a gyromouse mechanism using a gyrosensor, an acceleration sensor, etc., it is necessary to write in a unique manner while twisting the wrist. Thus, the pen device is difficult for beginners to handle, making it difficult to input. Further, the spatial position of a virtual plane is difficult to grasp because characters or the like are written in the air, and the input has to be started and ended by clicking a button provided on the pen device, making it difficult to operate by intuition.
Further, the system for inputting the characters hand-written in the air cannot detect the start and end of writing while the finger is located in the image frame of the video camera. Thus, character input becomes special and characters have to be written with a single stroke. Furthermore, every time one character is written, the finger has to be placed outside the image frame of the video camera, resulting in a very unnatural input method. Therefore, this system also has a problem of being unable to operate by intuition like the above pen device.